Diberdayakan oleh Blogger.

Popular Posts Today

Typhoon death toll jumps to 239

Written By Unknown on Rabu, 05 Desember 2012 | 23.18

Residents use a makeshift stretcher to carry a boy's body across a destroyed highway in the village of Andap, one day after Typhoon Bopha hit the province. Source: AFP

THE death toll from a typhoon that ravaged the Philippines jumped to 239 with hundreds more missing, as rescuers battled to reach areas cut off by floods and mudslides.

Typhoon Bopha slammed into the southern island of Mindanao Tuesday, toppling trees and blowing away homes with 210-kilometre per hour gusts before easing and heading towards the South China Sea.

Cabinet members Mar Roxas and Corazon Soliman, who flew to the south to inspect the damage, described scenes of utter devastation with thousands of houses ripped apart and corpses lying on the ground.

"These are whole families, six or seven names with the same surnames. It is saddening to think entire families have been washed away," Interior Secretary Roxas said.

Residents examine their destroyed houses in Compostela, as the death toll from the powerful typhoon jumped to 239.

"There is hardly any structure that is undamaged," he said in an interview over ABS-CBN television.

"We need to rush to these areas body bags, medicines, dry clothes and most importantly tents, because survivors are living out in the open," Social Welfare Secretary Mr Soliman told AFP.

Bodies caked in mud were being transported on the back of army trucks and laid out in rows on tarpaulins where relatives searching for missing family members broke down as they identified the shrouded corpses of loved ones.

About 40 people were killed or missing in flash floods and landslides in the Philippines. Deborah Lutterbeck reports.

Shell-shocked survivors scrabbled through the rubble of their homes to find anything that could be recovered among a surrounding wasteland of flattened banana and coconut trees.

A total of 142 people died in and around the mountain town of New Bataan, a gold-rush settlement that was ravaged by flash floods and landslides, regional military spokesman Lieutenant-Colonel Lyndon Paniza said.

Eighty-one others were killed in the province of Davao Oriental, where Bopha had made landfall, Lt-Col. Paniza said.

Workers try to clear a road after Typhoon Bophal smashed into the southern Philippines. At least 43 people were reported dead in one hard-hit town.

Civil defence officials said in a fresh update that 16 people were killed elsewhere in Mindanao and the central islands, while 170,000 people sought refuge in government shelters.

Mr Roxas said 319 people were missing.

President Benigno Aquino said he hoped the country was learning from its frequent natural disasters, including the roughly 20 cyclones that hit each year.

A man holds his child next to the bodies of three children who were killed in a landslide that swept their home after Typhoon Bopha made a landfall in Compostela Valley in southeastern Philippines.

"Any single casualty is a cause for distress. Our aim must always be about finding ways to lessen them," he told reporters in Manila, while pointing out the "big difference" in casualty counts compared with previous storms.

The more than 500 dead or missing in Bopha was still below the 1200 deaths from tropical storm Washi, which hit in December 2011, leaving hundreds of thousands homeless in Mindanao, he said.

Mr Aquino said the government was investigating why an army patrol base in New Bataan, which was washed away in the flash floods, had been located in a flood-prone area.

Residents gather their belongings after their house was destroyed by strong winds of up to 210km/h from Typhoon Bopha.

Officials were also checking reports that an evacuation centre there was among the structures wiped out in the floods, the president added.

"According to (survivors), there is a small lake on the mountain that gave way so the waters flowed down, not just along the rivers... but all across, like a waterfall, bringing a slurry that covered the whole town," Mr Roxas said.

One shelter there had caved in during the typhoon, forcing the people inside to flee to an even smaller building.

A man carries his pet dog to safety as he wades through a flooded street in Cagayan de Oro City. Authorities are checking reports that a flash flood swept away an army truck with 50 people on board.

Bopha was the most powerful of the 16 storms to pummel the Philippines this year, though Mindanao is not usually on the front line.

Lt-Col. Paniza said three soldiers taking part in rescue operations were killed in New Bataan, with eight others from the same unit among the missing.

"It is quite sad and tragic. They were actually there to be ready to help our countrymen who may be in trouble," Mr Roxas said.
 

This photo provided by NASA and made from the International Space Station on Dec. 2 shows powerful Typhoon Bopha moving toward the Philippines.

A boy waits in a temporary shelter after Typhoon Bopha hit the southeastern Philippines. Thousands of people were forced to flee their homes for emergency shelters.


23.18 | 0 komentar | Read More

Police hunt sick child taken from hospital

A mother has removed her cancer stricken teenage daughter from a hospital with no explanation. Police are now searching for the girl and say there may be criminal charges against the mother. Source: Supplied

EMILY has leukemia. She just underwent a month of chemotherapy and had her right arm amputated after suffering complications.

Doctors say she is at risk of dying from an infection.  But the sick 11-year-old isn't in a hospital.

Her mother last week inexplicably unhooked a tube that had been carrying vital medication through the girl's heart, got her out of bed and changed her clothes. Then she did something police say is even more baffling - she walked the child out of the hospital, the tiny tube still protruding from her chest.

Doctors say the device, if left unattended, could allow bacteria to quickly enter her body, leading to a potentially deadly infection.

Phoenix police are now on a desperate search for the mother and daughter, last seen nearly a week ago on surveillance video leaving Phoenix Children's Hospital, the mother pushing an IV stand, the small child with a bandaged arm amputated above the elbow walking beside her.

Authorities have no explanation for why 35-year-old Norma Bracamontes took her daughter from the hospital before her treatment was complete, but they say it's imperative she return her immediately. They're even considering criminal charges.

"Certainly from our standpoint, we are looking at it thinking, is this negligence in failing to provide Emily the proper medical care that she requires?" police Sgt. Steve Martos said Tuesday. "They should know by now what is required, what Emily needs, so it baffles us that anyone, any parent with a child like this, with leukemia and an amputated arm, and now you put them in this situation where it's potentially fatal, we just don't understand why they would not seek medical treatment."

Authorities speculate the mother might have been concerned with paying the child's hospital bill, but her motivation remains a mystery. The family lives a "nomadic" life without a permanent residence, but they have relatives in Arizona, California and Mexico, none of whom have been able to provide police with information about their whereabouts, Sgt. Martos said.

US Border Patrol agents stopped the girl's father, Luis Bracamontes, 46, as he crossed into Arizona from Mexico over the weekend, but the man denied any involvement in removing his daughter from the hospital and said he didn't know where she was.

Sgt. Martos said doctors, who can't discuss Emily's case publicly due to privacy laws, told authorities that when Emily's mother removed the tubing, she failed to put a cap on the open line leading into the girl's body. That's left the young girl susceptible to a potentially deadly infection.

The cap was found in the girl's hospital bathroom.

Dr William Schaffner, an infectious disease specialist at Vanderbilt University Medical Centre, said Emily's immune system is already compromised from the cancer and chemotherapy.

"If bacteria get into the blood stream, that can cause a serious infection," Dr Schaffner said.

The open catheter could serve as a pathway for bacteria, he said, adding that an infection is not only possible, but likely.

"These are life-threatening infections, particularly in young children who've had leukemia and chemotherapy," Dr Schaffner said.

And the longer the girl is away from medical care, the greater the risk of contamination.

If infection does set in, he said, the girl could die "in a few days or worse, hours."


23.18 | 0 komentar | Read More

World's tallest woman dies in China

Yao Defen, seen with her brother in a 2009 image, died last month after reaching a height of 2.36 metres, an official said. Source: AP

A CHINESE woman who was certified as the tallest in the world has died, an official from her hometown said.

Yao Defen, of eastern China's Anhui province, was listed as the world's tallest woman by Guinness World Records in 2010, when she stood 2.33 metres high, according to the record compiler's website.

"Yao Defen died in the middle of last month," a spokesman for the government of Shucha township, where Yao lived, told AFP by telephone.

The official, who refused to give his name, said that he was not certain of the cause of her death.

Yao, recorded as the third tallest woman who ever lived, was 40 when she died. Her gigantism was reportedly due to a tumour in her pituitary gland.

An Anhui newspaper reported that she died on November 13, having reached a height of 2.36 metres, adding that she was already more than two metres tall when she was 15.

 

23.18 | 0 komentar | Read More

War veteran, 80, sent to labour camp

An 80-year-old Chinese war veteran was sent to a labour camp for a year and a half for "re-education" after he complained about a policeman. Picture: Michael Perkins Source: News Limited

AN 80-YEAR-OLD Chinese war veteran spent a year and a half in a "re-education" camp for trying to complain about a policeman.

Liu Chunshan, a veteran of the Chinese Civil War and Korean War, was sent to a "re-education through labour" camp after he visited Beijing 37 times to try to complain about a local policeman, state broadcaster CCTV reported.

The dispute stemmed from rows with officers over Mr Liu's scrap metal recycling business.

Authorities in Liaoning province offered to pay Mr Liu not to visit Beijing, but sentenced him to one and a half years of "re-education through labour" after he persisted in his campaign, CCTV said. He has now been released.

His son, Liu Xuebo confirmed the contents of the report.

China's re-education through labour system gives police the right to hand out sentences of up to four years without a judicial trial. A 2009 United Nations report estimated that 190,000 Chinese were locked up in such facilities.

Life in the camps can vary widely, but many prisoners face extremely long work days manufacturing goods for international markets or doing agricultural work, the Duihua Foundation, a US-based rights group, said in a report.

Chinese media have grown more vocal in exposing inhumane cases of re-education through labour in recent months, with some opinion page pieces calling for the system to be abolished completely.

State media harshly criticised authorities for sentencing college student Ren Jianyu, to two years in a labour camp for posting messages critical of the local government online. Last month he was released early.

A government spokesman said in October that the re-education through labour system had "played an important role in keeping social order", but admitted that there were "problems" with the system which required reforms.

A Chinese lawyer whose online petition for the abolition of the system collected 10,000 signatures was ordered by local authorities not to grant interviews to foreign media, Radio Free Asia reported on Tuesday.


23.18 | 0 komentar | Read More

Shooter in 'honeymoon murder' gets life

Xolile Mngeni, left, gives a thumbs up to his family after being sentenced to life in prison for the murder of Anni Dewani. Prosecutors say the murder was a hit ordered by Dewani's husband that was staged to look like a carjacking. Source: AP

Vinod Hindocha, centre, father of murdered newlywed tourist Anni Dewani, flanked by his son Anish and police officer Louise Smit, sits in the High Court of Cape Town for the sentencing of tiggerman Xolile Mngeni. Source: AFP

A SOUTH African judge sentenced the triggerman in the 2010 honeymoon slaying of a Swedish bride to life in prison, calling the shooter "a merciless and evil person" who deserved the maximum punishment for his crime.

Prosecutors say the newlywed's British husband orchestrated the November 2010 killing.

Judge Robert Henney did not hold back his contempt while sentencing Xolile Mngeni for the killing of 28-year-old Anni Dewani. Judge Henney said that the shooter showed no remorse.

"He had no regard to her right to freedom, dignity, and totally disregarded and showed no respect to her right to life by brutally killing her with utter disdain," Judge Henney said.

Mngeni, who had surgery to remove a brain tumour while facing trial, at times sat with his face resting on the bannister of the dock on top of his crossed arms.

Dewani's family members, wearing black clothes and with pictures of the young woman pinned to their chests, stared at him.

In August, Mngeni's alleged accomplice Mziwamadoda Qwabe pleaded guilty to charges over the killing, receiving a 25-year prison sentence.

Zola Tongo, the taxi driver that police say husband Shrien Dewani asked to plot the killing, earlier received an 18-year prison sentence.

Both Tongo and Qwabe have said Dewani wanted it to look like he wasn't involved his wife's slaying and they planned to have the attack look like a carjacking in Cape Town's impoverished Gugulethu township.

The men were paid 15,000 rand ($1600) for the killing, Qwabe and prosecutors have said.

In a statement provided as part of his plea deal, Qwabe said that after he and Mngeni staged a fake carjacking, he drove the car as Mngeni kept a 7.62 mm pistol pointed at Anni Dewani in the backseat and then pulled the trigger, the fatal shot going through her neck.

Panicked, Qwabe said he stopped the car and got out, helping Mngeni find the spent bullet casing. He threw the casing into a sewer as they ran away into the night.

Officials at first thought the crime was robbery. The rate of violent crime is high in South Africa but attacks on foreign tourists are rare.

Shrien Dewani has denied he hired anyone to kill his wife and was allowed by authorities to leave South Africa for the United Kingdom, where he was later arrested.

In March, a UK High Court ruled that it would be "unjust and oppressive" to extradite Mr Dewani to South Africa, as his mental condition had worsened since his arrest there.

Mr Dewani's lawyer told the court in a hearing July 31 that he needed at least a year to recover from depression and post-traumatic stress disorder before being potentially sent back to South Africa.
 


23.18 | 0 komentar | Read More

NATO ambassador leaps to death

Serbian ambassador to NATO Branislav Milinkovic attending a meeting in December 2006. Picture: AFP Source: AFP

SERBIA's ambassador to NATO was chatting and joking with colleagues in a multi-level car park at Brussels Airport when he suddenly strolled to a barrier, climbed over and flung himself to the ground below, a diplomat said.

By the time his shocked colleagues reached him, Branislav Milinkovic was dead.

His motives are a mystery. Three diplomats who knew Mr Milinkovic said he did not appear distraught in the hours leading up to his death on Tuesday night.

He seemed to be going about his regular business, picking up an arriving delegation of six Serbian officials who were due to hold talks with NATO, the alliance that went to war with his country just 13 years ago.

A former author and activist opposed to the authoritarian regime of Serbia's former strongman Slobodan Milosevic, he was a respected diplomat and leading intellectual, officials said.

The diplomats, who spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorised to release details, said they knew of no circumstances - private or professional - that would have prompted him to take his own life.

One of the diplomats described the death, saying she had spoken to a member of the delegation who had witnessed the leap from the 8- to 10-metre-high platform.

The diplomats all spoke on condition of anonymity because they are not permitted by foreign service regulations to speak publicly to the press.

Speaking in Brussels, Serbia's Prime Minister Ivica Dacic said that "Belgian police are investigating, but it's obviously a suicide. It's hard to figure out the motives or causes."

The death cast a pall on the second day of a meeting of NATO foreign ministers. Officials said they were shocked by the news of the death of a very popular and well-liked ambassador.

"NATO's Secretary General Anders Fogh Rasmussen said he was deeply saddened by the tragic death of the Serbian ambassador," alliance spokeswoman Carmen Romero said.

"Milinkovic was a highly respected representative of his country and will be missed at NATO headquarters."

During the 1990s, Mr Milinkovic was active in the opposition to Milosevic. After he was ousted in 2000, Mr Milinkovic was appointed Serbia's ambassador to the Organisation for Security and Co-Operation in Europe, or OSCE, in Vienna.

He was transferred to NATO as Serbia's special representative in 2004. Serbia is not a member of the military alliance, but Mr Milinkovic was named ambassador after Belgrade joined NATO's Partnership for Peace program, which groups neutral states.

The move to join the NATO program had angered Serbian nationalists who are now in power. They have pledged the nation will never join because of its 1999 bombing campaign, during which it forced Milosevic's forces to withdraw from Serbia's southern province of Kosovo.

Mr Milinkovic is survived by his wife and 17-year-old son.

If you or someone you know may be at risk of suicide contact Lifeline 13 11 14, beyondblue 1300 22 46 36, or Salvo Care Line 1300 36 36 22.


23.18 | 0 komentar | Read More

Harry 'jumps for joy' on baby news

Britain's Prince Harry, seen here after playing a charity polo match in Brazil, reportedly jumped for joy at hearing he was going to be an uncle. Source: AP

PRINCE Harry has reportedly jumped for joy at his Afghanistan army base on being told he is to become an uncle.

The 28-year-old playboy prince who is on tour as an Apache helicopter pilot, learned on Monday that his brother, Prince William, and sister-in-law Catherine are expecting a child.

"Harry jumped for joy when he heard the news that Kate is expecting. He's really looking forward to coming back and can't wait to be an uncle," an unnamed source from Afghanistan Camp Bastian told British newspaper The Sun.

Harry sent his sister-in-law a message from the war zone which read "get well soon, sis", the tabloid reported.

Catherine was admitted to a private London hospital on Monday suffering acute morning sickness and although showing signs of improvement, is expected to remain in care for several days.

Harry is topping media predictions as the royal baby's godparent, along with Catherine's younger sister, Pippa Middleton.

William's first child will become third in line to the British throne, pushing Harry to fourth place.


23.18 | 0 komentar | Read More

Aussie radio hosts sorry for royal prank

Radio personality Mel Greig convinced King Edward VII hospital staff that they were talking to the Queen. Source: adelaidenow

TWO Australian radio hosts have apologised for making a hoax call to the hospital where Prince William's pregnant wife Catherine is being treated.

Mel Greig and Michael Christian from 2Day FM posed as the Queen and Prince Charles during the phone call to King Edward VII Hospital on Tuesday evening (AEDT) and were put through to a nurse who gave an update on the Duchess's condition.

"We were very surprised that our call was put through. We thought we'd be hung up on as soon as they heard our terrible accents," the broadcasters said in a statement.

"We're very sorry if we've caused any issues and we're glad to hear that Kate is doing well."

The prank call was pre-recorded and vetted by lawyers before being broadcast to listeners in Sydney.

"2Day FM sincerely apologises for any inconvenience caused by the inquiries to Kate's hospital," a station spokeswoman said.

"The radio segment was done with lighthearted intentions. We wish Kate and her family all the best and we're glad to hear she's doing well."

The pair adopt toffy accents for the call, during which the nurse refers to Greig as "ma'am", while a third member of 2Day FM staff can be heard pretending to bark in an attempt to impersonate one of the Queen's corgis.

"She's quite stable. She hasn't had any retching and she's been sleeping on and off," the nurse tells the pranksters after referring to Greig as ma'am.

A hospital statement released on Wednesday said the incident has sparked a review of telephone protocol.

"King Edward VII's Hospital Sister Agnes can confirm that an Australian radio station made a hoax call to the hospital in the early hours of Tuesday morning," the statement read.

"This call was transferred through to a ward and a short conversation was held with one of the nursing staff. King Edward VII's Hospital deeply regrets this incident."

John Lofthouse, chief executive at King Edward VII's Hospital, said: "This was a foolish prank call that we all deplore. We take patient confidentiality extremely seriously and we are now reviewing our telephone protocols."

Catherine was admitted to the facility, favoured by the royal family, on Monday as the world learnt she was in the early stages of pregnancy.

She is being treated for acute morning sickness and is expected to be in hospital for several days, the palace said.

Representatives for the Duke and Duchess of Cambridge have not commented on the prank.

The segment of Tuesday evening's radio show can be heard online by visiting www.youtube.com/watch?v=wa5JQC8VNdw
Greig asks the nurse when she can visit her "granddaughter Kate" and how her "little tummy bug is going".

"When is a good time to come and visit her coz I'm the Queen and I need a lift down there ..."

She is then heard to ask Charles (Christian) when he can take her to the hospital.


23.18 | 0 komentar | Read More

Capitalism and socialism 'words of year'

Capitalism and socialism have been named 2012's most looked up words of the year, thanks largely to the election.  Source: Supplied

THANKS to the election, socialism and capitalism are forever wed as Merriam-Webster's most looked-up words of 2012.

Traffic for the unlikely pair on the company's website about doubled this year from the year before as the health care debate heated up and discussion intensified over "American capitalism" versus "European socialism," said the editor-at-large, Peter Sokolowski.

The choice, revealed on Wednesday, was "kind of a no-brainer," he said. The side-by-side interest among political candidates and around kitchen tables prompted the dictionary folk to settle on two words of the year rather than one for the first time since the accolade began in 2003.

"They're words that sort of encapsulate the zeitgeist. They're words that are in the national conversation," said Sokolowski from company headquarters in Springfield, Massachusetts. "The thing about an election year is it generates a huge amount of very specific interest."

Democracy, globalisation, marriage and bigot - all touched by politics - made the Top 10, in no particular order. The latter two were driven in part by the fight for same-sex marriage acceptance.

Last year's word of the year was austerity. Before that, it was pragmatic. Other words in the leading dictionary maker's Top 10 for 2012 were also politically motivated.

Harken back to October 11, when Vice President Joe Biden tangled with Mitt Romney running mate Paul Ryan in a televised debate focused on foreign policy - terror attacks, defense spending and war, to be specific.

"With all due respect, that's a bunch of MALARKEY," declared Mr Biden during a particularly tough row with Mr Ryan. The mention sent look-ups of malarkey soaring on Merriam-webster.com, Mr Sokolowski said, adding: "Clearly a one-week wonder, but what a week!"

Actually, it was more like what a day. Look-ups of malarkey represented the largest spike of a single word on the website by percentage, at 3000 per cent, in a single 24-hour period this year. The company won't release the number of page views per word but said the site gets about 1.2 billion overall each year.

Malarkey, with the alternative spelling of "y'' at the end, is of unknown origin, but Merriam-Webster surmises it's more Irish-American than Irish, tracing it to newspaper references as far back as 1929.

Beyond "nonsense," malarkey can mean "insincere or pretentious talk or writing designed to impress one and usually to distract attention from ulterior motives or actual conditions," noted Mr Sokolowski.

"That's exactly what Joe Biden was saying. Very precise," especially in conversation with another Irish-American, Mr Sokolowski said. "He chose a word that resonated with the public, I think in part because it really resonated with him. It made perfect sense for this man to use this word in this moment."

An interesting election-related phenom, to be sure, but malarkey is no dead Big Bird or "binders full of women" - two Romneyisms from the defeated candidate's televised match-ups with Mr Obama that evoked another of Merriam-Webster's Top 10 - meme.

While malarkey's history is shaded, meme's roots are easily traced to evolutionary biologist Richard Dawkins, a Brit who coined the term for a unit of cultural inheritance, not unlike genes and DNA. The retired professor at the University of Oxford made up the word in 1976 for "The Selfish Gene," a book he published light years before the Internet and social media's capacity to take memes viral.

Mr Sokolowski said traffic for meme more than doubled this year over 2011, with dramatic spikes pegged to political-related subjects that included Mr Romney's Big Bird and binders remarks, social media shares of images pegged to Hillary Clinton texting and Mr Obama's "horses and bayonets" debate rebuke of Mr Romney in an exchange over the size of the Navy.

Prof Dawkins, reached at home in Oxford, was tickled by the dictionary shout out.

"I'm very pleased that it's one of the 10 words that got picked out," he said. "I'm delighted. I hope it may bring more people to understand something about evolution."

The book in which he used meme for the first time is mostly about the gene as the primary unit of natural selection, or the Darwinian idea that only the strongest survive. In the last chapter, he said, he wanted to describe some sort of cultural replicator.

And he wanted a word that sounded like "gene," so he took a twist on the Greek mimeme, which is the origin of "mime" and "mimesis," a scientific term meaning imitation.

"It's a very clever coinage," lauded the lexicographer Mr Sokolowski.

Other words in Merriam-Webster's Top 10 for 2012:

- Touche, thanks in part to "Survivor" contestant Kat Edorsson misusing the word to mean "tough luck" rather than point well made, before she was voted off the island in May. Look-ups at Merriam-webster.com were up sevenfold this year over 2011.

- Schadenfreude, made up of the German words for "damage" and "joy," meaning taking pleasure in the misery of others, was used broadly in the media after the election. Look-ups increased 75 per cent. The word in English dates to 1895.

- Professionalism, up 12 per cent this year over last. Mr Sokolowski suspects the bump might have been due to the bad economy and more job seekers, or a knowing "glimpse into what qualities people value."


23.18 | 0 komentar | Read More

Typhoon death toll jumps to 239

Residents use a makeshift stretcher to carry a boy's body across a destroyed highway in the village of Andap, one day after Typhoon Bopha hit the province. Source: AFP

THE death toll from a typhoon that ravaged the Philippines jumped to 239 with hundreds more missing, as rescuers battled to reach areas cut off by floods and mudslides.

Typhoon Bopha slammed into the southern island of Mindanao Tuesday, toppling trees and blowing away homes with 210-kilometre per hour gusts before easing and heading towards the South China Sea.

Cabinet members Mar Roxas and Corazon Soliman, who flew to the south to inspect the damage, described scenes of utter devastation with thousands of houses ripped apart and corpses lying on the ground.

"These are whole families, six or seven names with the same surnames. It is saddening to think entire families have been washed away," Interior Secretary Roxas said.

Residents examine their destroyed houses in Compostela, as the death toll from the powerful typhoon jumped to 239.

"There is hardly any structure that is undamaged," he said in an interview over ABS-CBN television.

"We need to rush to these areas body bags, medicines, dry clothes and most importantly tents, because survivors are living out in the open," Social Welfare Secretary Mr Soliman told AFP.

Bodies caked in mud were being transported on the back of army trucks and laid out in rows on tarpaulins where relatives searching for missing family members broke down as they identified the shrouded corpses of loved ones.

About 40 people were killed or missing in flash floods and landslides in the Philippines. Deborah Lutterbeck reports.

Shell-shocked survivors scrabbled through the rubble of their homes to find anything that could be recovered among a surrounding wasteland of flattened banana and coconut trees.

A total of 142 people died in and around the mountain town of New Bataan, a gold-rush settlement that was ravaged by flash floods and landslides, regional military spokesman Lieutenant-Colonel Lyndon Paniza said.

Eighty-one others were killed in the province of Davao Oriental, where Bopha had made landfall, Lt-Col. Paniza said.

Workers try to clear a road after Typhoon Bophal smashed into the southern Philippines. At least 43 people were reported dead in one hard-hit town.

Civil defence officials said in a fresh update that 16 people were killed elsewhere in Mindanao and the central islands, while 170,000 people sought refuge in government shelters.

Mr Roxas said 319 people were missing.

President Benigno Aquino said he hoped the country was learning from its frequent natural disasters, including the roughly 20 cyclones that hit each year.

A man holds his child next to the bodies of three children who were killed in a landslide that swept their home after Typhoon Bopha made a landfall in Compostela Valley in southeastern Philippines.

"Any single casualty is a cause for distress. Our aim must always be about finding ways to lessen them," he told reporters in Manila, while pointing out the "big difference" in casualty counts compared with previous storms.

The more than 500 dead or missing in Bopha was still below the 1200 deaths from tropical storm Washi, which hit in December 2011, leaving hundreds of thousands homeless in Mindanao, he said.

Mr Aquino said the government was investigating why an army patrol base in New Bataan, which was washed away in the flash floods, had been located in a flood-prone area.

Residents gather their belongings after their house was destroyed by strong winds of up to 210km/h from Typhoon Bopha.

Officials were also checking reports that an evacuation centre there was among the structures wiped out in the floods, the president added.

"According to (survivors), there is a small lake on the mountain that gave way so the waters flowed down, not just along the rivers... but all across, like a waterfall, bringing a slurry that covered the whole town," Mr Roxas said.

One shelter there had caved in during the typhoon, forcing the people inside to flee to an even smaller building.

A man carries his pet dog to safety as he wades through a flooded street in Cagayan de Oro City. Authorities are checking reports that a flash flood swept away an army truck with 50 people on board.

Bopha was the most powerful of the 16 storms to pummel the Philippines this year, though Mindanao is not usually on the front line.

Lt-Col. Paniza said three soldiers taking part in rescue operations were killed in New Bataan, with eight others from the same unit among the missing.

"It is quite sad and tragic. They were actually there to be ready to help our countrymen who may be in trouble," Mr Roxas said.
 

This photo provided by NASA and made from the International Space Station on Dec. 2 shows powerful Typhoon Bopha moving toward the Philippines.

A boy waits in a temporary shelter after Typhoon Bopha hit the southeastern Philippines. Thousands of people were forced to flee their homes for emergency shelters.


23.18 | 0 komentar | Read More

Police hunt sick child taken from hospital

A mother has removed her cancer stricken teenage daughter from a hospital with no explanation. Police are now searching for the girl and say there may be criminal charges against the mother. Source: Supplied

EMILY has leukemia. She just underwent a month of chemotherapy and had her right arm amputated after suffering complications.

Doctors say she is at risk of dying from an infection.  But the sick 11-year-old isn't in a hospital.

Her mother last week inexplicably unhooked a tube that had been carrying vital medication through the girl's heart, got her out of bed and changed her clothes. Then she did something police say is even more baffling - she walked the child out of the hospital, the tiny tube still protruding from her chest.

Doctors say the device, if left unattended, could allow bacteria to quickly enter her body, leading to a potentially deadly infection.

Phoenix police are now on a desperate search for the mother and daughter, last seen nearly a week ago on surveillance video leaving Phoenix Children's Hospital, the mother pushing an IV stand, the small child with a bandaged arm amputated above the elbow walking beside her.

Authorities have no explanation for why 35-year-old Norma Bracamontes took her daughter from the hospital before her treatment was complete, but they say it's imperative she return her immediately. They're even considering criminal charges.

"Certainly from our standpoint, we are looking at it thinking, is this negligence in failing to provide Emily the proper medical care that she requires?" police Sgt. Steve Martos said Tuesday. "They should know by now what is required, what Emily needs, so it baffles us that anyone, any parent with a child like this, with leukemia and an amputated arm, and now you put them in this situation where it's potentially fatal, we just don't understand why they would not seek medical treatment."

Authorities speculate the mother might have been concerned with paying the child's hospital bill, but her motivation remains a mystery. The family lives a "nomadic" life without a permanent residence, but they have relatives in Arizona, California and Mexico, none of whom have been able to provide police with information about their whereabouts, Sgt. Martos said.

US Border Patrol agents stopped the girl's father, Luis Bracamontes, 46, as he crossed into Arizona from Mexico over the weekend, but the man denied any involvement in removing his daughter from the hospital and said he didn't know where she was.

Sgt. Martos said doctors, who can't discuss Emily's case publicly due to privacy laws, told authorities that when Emily's mother removed the tubing, she failed to put a cap on the open line leading into the girl's body. That's left the young girl susceptible to a potentially deadly infection.

The cap was found in the girl's hospital bathroom.

Dr William Schaffner, an infectious disease specialist at Vanderbilt University Medical Centre, said Emily's immune system is already compromised from the cancer and chemotherapy.

"If bacteria get into the blood stream, that can cause a serious infection," Dr Schaffner said.

The open catheter could serve as a pathway for bacteria, he said, adding that an infection is not only possible, but likely.

"These are life-threatening infections, particularly in young children who've had leukemia and chemotherapy," Dr Schaffner said.

And the longer the girl is away from medical care, the greater the risk of contamination.

If infection does set in, he said, the girl could die "in a few days or worse, hours."


23.18 | 0 komentar | Read More

World's tallest woman dies in China

Yao Defen, seen with her brother in a 2009 image, died last month after reaching a height of 2.36 metres, an official said. Source: AP

A CHINESE woman who was certified as the tallest in the world has died, an official from her hometown said.

Yao Defen, of eastern China's Anhui province, was listed as the world's tallest woman by Guinness World Records in 2010, when she stood 2.33 metres high, according to the record compiler's website.

"Yao Defen died in the middle of last month," a spokesman for the government of Shucha township, where Yao lived, told AFP by telephone.

The official, who refused to give his name, said that he was not certain of the cause of her death.

Yao, recorded as the third tallest woman who ever lived, was 40 when she died. Her gigantism was reportedly due to a tumour in her pituitary gland.

An Anhui newspaper reported that she died on November 13, having reached a height of 2.36 metres, adding that she was already more than two metres tall when she was 15.

 

23.18 | 0 komentar | Read More

War veteran, 80, sent to labour camp

An 80-year-old Chinese war veteran was sent to a labour camp for a year and a half for "re-education" after he complained about a policeman. Picture: Michael Perkins Source: News Limited

AN 80-YEAR-OLD Chinese war veteran spent a year and a half in a "re-education" camp for trying to complain about a policeman.

Liu Chunshan, a veteran of the Chinese Civil War and Korean War, was sent to a "re-education through labour" camp after he visited Beijing 37 times to try to complain about a local policeman, state broadcaster CCTV reported.

The dispute stemmed from rows with officers over Mr Liu's scrap metal recycling business.

Authorities in Liaoning province offered to pay Mr Liu not to visit Beijing, but sentenced him to one and a half years of "re-education through labour" after he persisted in his campaign, CCTV said. He has now been released.

His son, Liu Xuebo confirmed the contents of the report.

China's re-education through labour system gives police the right to hand out sentences of up to four years without a judicial trial. A 2009 United Nations report estimated that 190,000 Chinese were locked up in such facilities.

Life in the camps can vary widely, but many prisoners face extremely long work days manufacturing goods for international markets or doing agricultural work, the Duihua Foundation, a US-based rights group, said in a report.

Chinese media have grown more vocal in exposing inhumane cases of re-education through labour in recent months, with some opinion page pieces calling for the system to be abolished completely.

State media harshly criticised authorities for sentencing college student Ren Jianyu, to two years in a labour camp for posting messages critical of the local government online. Last month he was released early.

A government spokesman said in October that the re-education through labour system had "played an important role in keeping social order", but admitted that there were "problems" with the system which required reforms.

A Chinese lawyer whose online petition for the abolition of the system collected 10,000 signatures was ordered by local authorities not to grant interviews to foreign media, Radio Free Asia reported on Tuesday.


23.18 | 0 komentar | Read More

Shooter in 'honeymoon murder' gets life

Xolile Mngeni, left, gives a thumbs up to his family after being sentenced to life in prison for the murder of Anni Dewani. Prosecutors say the murder was a hit ordered by Dewani's husband that was staged to look like a carjacking. Source: AP

Vinod Hindocha, centre, father of murdered newlywed tourist Anni Dewani, flanked by his son Anish and police officer Louise Smit, sits in the High Court of Cape Town for the sentencing of tiggerman Xolile Mngeni. Source: AFP

A SOUTH African judge sentenced the triggerman in the 2010 honeymoon slaying of a Swedish bride to life in prison, calling the shooter "a merciless and evil person" who deserved the maximum punishment for his crime.

Prosecutors say the newlywed's British husband orchestrated the November 2010 killing.

Judge Robert Henney did not hold back his contempt while sentencing Xolile Mngeni for the killing of 28-year-old Anni Dewani. Judge Henney said that the shooter showed no remorse.

"He had no regard to her right to freedom, dignity, and totally disregarded and showed no respect to her right to life by brutally killing her with utter disdain," Judge Henney said.

Mngeni, who had surgery to remove a brain tumour while facing trial, at times sat with his face resting on the bannister of the dock on top of his crossed arms.

Dewani's family members, wearing black clothes and with pictures of the young woman pinned to their chests, stared at him.

In August, Mngeni's alleged accomplice Mziwamadoda Qwabe pleaded guilty to charges over the killing, receiving a 25-year prison sentence.

Zola Tongo, the taxi driver that police say husband Shrien Dewani asked to plot the killing, earlier received an 18-year prison sentence.

Both Tongo and Qwabe have said Dewani wanted it to look like he wasn't involved his wife's slaying and they planned to have the attack look like a carjacking in Cape Town's impoverished Gugulethu township.

The men were paid 15,000 rand ($1600) for the killing, Qwabe and prosecutors have said.

In a statement provided as part of his plea deal, Qwabe said that after he and Mngeni staged a fake carjacking, he drove the car as Mngeni kept a 7.62 mm pistol pointed at Anni Dewani in the backseat and then pulled the trigger, the fatal shot going through her neck.

Panicked, Qwabe said he stopped the car and got out, helping Mngeni find the spent bullet casing. He threw the casing into a sewer as they ran away into the night.

Officials at first thought the crime was robbery. The rate of violent crime is high in South Africa but attacks on foreign tourists are rare.

Shrien Dewani has denied he hired anyone to kill his wife and was allowed by authorities to leave South Africa for the United Kingdom, where he was later arrested.

In March, a UK High Court ruled that it would be "unjust and oppressive" to extradite Mr Dewani to South Africa, as his mental condition had worsened since his arrest there.

Mr Dewani's lawyer told the court in a hearing July 31 that he needed at least a year to recover from depression and post-traumatic stress disorder before being potentially sent back to South Africa.
 


23.18 | 0 komentar | Read More

NATO ambassador leaps to death

Serbian ambassador to NATO Branislav Milinkovic attending a meeting in December 2006. Picture: AFP Source: AFP

SERBIA's ambassador to NATO was chatting and joking with colleagues in a multi-level car park at Brussels Airport when he suddenly strolled to a barrier, climbed over and flung himself to the ground below, a diplomat said.

By the time his shocked colleagues reached him, Branislav Milinkovic was dead.

His motives are a mystery. Three diplomats who knew Mr Milinkovic said he did not appear distraught in the hours leading up to his death on Tuesday night.

He seemed to be going about his regular business, picking up an arriving delegation of six Serbian officials who were due to hold talks with NATO, the alliance that went to war with his country just 13 years ago.

A former author and activist opposed to the authoritarian regime of Serbia's former strongman Slobodan Milosevic, he was a respected diplomat and leading intellectual, officials said.

The diplomats, who spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorised to release details, said they knew of no circumstances - private or professional - that would have prompted him to take his own life.

One of the diplomats described the death, saying she had spoken to a member of the delegation who had witnessed the leap from the 8- to 10-metre-high platform.

The diplomats all spoke on condition of anonymity because they are not permitted by foreign service regulations to speak publicly to the press.

Speaking in Brussels, Serbia's Prime Minister Ivica Dacic said that "Belgian police are investigating, but it's obviously a suicide. It's hard to figure out the motives or causes."

The death cast a pall on the second day of a meeting of NATO foreign ministers. Officials said they were shocked by the news of the death of a very popular and well-liked ambassador.

"NATO's Secretary General Anders Fogh Rasmussen said he was deeply saddened by the tragic death of the Serbian ambassador," alliance spokeswoman Carmen Romero said.

"Milinkovic was a highly respected representative of his country and will be missed at NATO headquarters."

During the 1990s, Mr Milinkovic was active in the opposition to Milosevic. After he was ousted in 2000, Mr Milinkovic was appointed Serbia's ambassador to the Organisation for Security and Co-Operation in Europe, or OSCE, in Vienna.

He was transferred to NATO as Serbia's special representative in 2004. Serbia is not a member of the military alliance, but Mr Milinkovic was named ambassador after Belgrade joined NATO's Partnership for Peace program, which groups neutral states.

The move to join the NATO program had angered Serbian nationalists who are now in power. They have pledged the nation will never join because of its 1999 bombing campaign, during which it forced Milosevic's forces to withdraw from Serbia's southern province of Kosovo.

Mr Milinkovic is survived by his wife and 17-year-old son.

If you or someone you know may be at risk of suicide contact Lifeline 13 11 14, beyondblue 1300 22 46 36, or Salvo Care Line 1300 36 36 22.


23.18 | 0 komentar | Read More

Harry 'jumps for joy' on baby news

Britain's Prince Harry, seen here after playing a charity polo match in Brazil, reportedly jumped for joy at hearing he was going to be an uncle. Source: AP

PRINCE Harry has reportedly jumped for joy at his Afghanistan army base on being told he is to become an uncle.

The 28-year-old playboy prince who is on tour as an Apache helicopter pilot, learned on Monday that his brother, Prince William, and sister-in-law Catherine are expecting a child.

"Harry jumped for joy when he heard the news that Kate is expecting. He's really looking forward to coming back and can't wait to be an uncle," an unnamed source from Afghanistan Camp Bastian told British newspaper The Sun.

Harry sent his sister-in-law a message from the war zone which read "get well soon, sis", the tabloid reported.

Catherine was admitted to a private London hospital on Monday suffering acute morning sickness and although showing signs of improvement, is expected to remain in care for several days.

Harry is topping media predictions as the royal baby's godparent, along with Catherine's younger sister, Pippa Middleton.

William's first child will become third in line to the British throne, pushing Harry to fourth place.


23.18 | 0 komentar | Read More

Aussie radio hosts sorry for royal prank

Radio personality Mel Greig convinced King Edward VII hospital staff that they were talking to the Queen. Source: adelaidenow

TWO Australian radio hosts have apologised for making a hoax call to the hospital where Prince William's pregnant wife Catherine is being treated.

Mel Greig and Michael Christian from 2Day FM posed as the Queen and Prince Charles during the phone call to King Edward VII Hospital on Tuesday evening (AEDT) and were put through to a nurse who gave an update on the Duchess's condition.

"We were very surprised that our call was put through. We thought we'd be hung up on as soon as they heard our terrible accents," the broadcasters said in a statement.

"We're very sorry if we've caused any issues and we're glad to hear that Kate is doing well."

The prank call was pre-recorded and vetted by lawyers before being broadcast to listeners in Sydney.

"2Day FM sincerely apologises for any inconvenience caused by the inquiries to Kate's hospital," a station spokeswoman said.

"The radio segment was done with lighthearted intentions. We wish Kate and her family all the best and we're glad to hear she's doing well."

The pair adopt toffy accents for the call, during which the nurse refers to Greig as "ma'am", while a third member of 2Day FM staff can be heard pretending to bark in an attempt to impersonate one of the Queen's corgis.

"She's quite stable. She hasn't had any retching and she's been sleeping on and off," the nurse tells the pranksters after referring to Greig as ma'am.

A hospital statement released on Wednesday said the incident has sparked a review of telephone protocol.

"King Edward VII's Hospital Sister Agnes can confirm that an Australian radio station made a hoax call to the hospital in the early hours of Tuesday morning," the statement read.

"This call was transferred through to a ward and a short conversation was held with one of the nursing staff. King Edward VII's Hospital deeply regrets this incident."

John Lofthouse, chief executive at King Edward VII's Hospital, said: "This was a foolish prank call that we all deplore. We take patient confidentiality extremely seriously and we are now reviewing our telephone protocols."

Catherine was admitted to the facility, favoured by the royal family, on Monday as the world learnt she was in the early stages of pregnancy.

She is being treated for acute morning sickness and is expected to be in hospital for several days, the palace said.

Representatives for the Duke and Duchess of Cambridge have not commented on the prank.

The segment of Tuesday evening's radio show can be heard online by visiting www.youtube.com/watch?v=wa5JQC8VNdw
Greig asks the nurse when she can visit her "granddaughter Kate" and how her "little tummy bug is going".

"When is a good time to come and visit her coz I'm the Queen and I need a lift down there ..."

She is then heard to ask Charles (Christian) when he can take her to the hospital.


23.18 | 0 komentar | Read More

Capitalism and socialism 'words of year'

Capitalism and socialism have been named 2012's most looked up words of the year, thanks largely to the election.  Source: Supplied

THANKS to the election, socialism and capitalism are forever wed as Merriam-Webster's most looked-up words of 2012.

Traffic for the unlikely pair on the company's website about doubled this year from the year before as the health care debate heated up and discussion intensified over "American capitalism" versus "European socialism," said the editor-at-large, Peter Sokolowski.

The choice, revealed on Wednesday, was "kind of a no-brainer," he said. The side-by-side interest among political candidates and around kitchen tables prompted the dictionary folk to settle on two words of the year rather than one for the first time since the accolade began in 2003.

"They're words that sort of encapsulate the zeitgeist. They're words that are in the national conversation," said Sokolowski from company headquarters in Springfield, Massachusetts. "The thing about an election year is it generates a huge amount of very specific interest."

Democracy, globalisation, marriage and bigot - all touched by politics - made the Top 10, in no particular order. The latter two were driven in part by the fight for same-sex marriage acceptance.

Last year's word of the year was austerity. Before that, it was pragmatic. Other words in the leading dictionary maker's Top 10 for 2012 were also politically motivated.

Harken back to October 11, when Vice President Joe Biden tangled with Mitt Romney running mate Paul Ryan in a televised debate focused on foreign policy - terror attacks, defense spending and war, to be specific.

"With all due respect, that's a bunch of MALARKEY," declared Mr Biden during a particularly tough row with Mr Ryan. The mention sent look-ups of malarkey soaring on Merriam-webster.com, Mr Sokolowski said, adding: "Clearly a one-week wonder, but what a week!"

Actually, it was more like what a day. Look-ups of malarkey represented the largest spike of a single word on the website by percentage, at 3000 per cent, in a single 24-hour period this year. The company won't release the number of page views per word but said the site gets about 1.2 billion overall each year.

Malarkey, with the alternative spelling of "y'' at the end, is of unknown origin, but Merriam-Webster surmises it's more Irish-American than Irish, tracing it to newspaper references as far back as 1929.

Beyond "nonsense," malarkey can mean "insincere or pretentious talk or writing designed to impress one and usually to distract attention from ulterior motives or actual conditions," noted Mr Sokolowski.

"That's exactly what Joe Biden was saying. Very precise," especially in conversation with another Irish-American, Mr Sokolowski said. "He chose a word that resonated with the public, I think in part because it really resonated with him. It made perfect sense for this man to use this word in this moment."

An interesting election-related phenom, to be sure, but malarkey is no dead Big Bird or "binders full of women" - two Romneyisms from the defeated candidate's televised match-ups with Mr Obama that evoked another of Merriam-Webster's Top 10 - meme.

While malarkey's history is shaded, meme's roots are easily traced to evolutionary biologist Richard Dawkins, a Brit who coined the term for a unit of cultural inheritance, not unlike genes and DNA. The retired professor at the University of Oxford made up the word in 1976 for "The Selfish Gene," a book he published light years before the Internet and social media's capacity to take memes viral.

Mr Sokolowski said traffic for meme more than doubled this year over 2011, with dramatic spikes pegged to political-related subjects that included Mr Romney's Big Bird and binders remarks, social media shares of images pegged to Hillary Clinton texting and Mr Obama's "horses and bayonets" debate rebuke of Mr Romney in an exchange over the size of the Navy.

Prof Dawkins, reached at home in Oxford, was tickled by the dictionary shout out.

"I'm very pleased that it's one of the 10 words that got picked out," he said. "I'm delighted. I hope it may bring more people to understand something about evolution."

The book in which he used meme for the first time is mostly about the gene as the primary unit of natural selection, or the Darwinian idea that only the strongest survive. In the last chapter, he said, he wanted to describe some sort of cultural replicator.

And he wanted a word that sounded like "gene," so he took a twist on the Greek mimeme, which is the origin of "mime" and "mimesis," a scientific term meaning imitation.

"It's a very clever coinage," lauded the lexicographer Mr Sokolowski.

Other words in Merriam-Webster's Top 10 for 2012:

- Touche, thanks in part to "Survivor" contestant Kat Edorsson misusing the word to mean "tough luck" rather than point well made, before she was voted off the island in May. Look-ups at Merriam-webster.com were up sevenfold this year over 2011.

- Schadenfreude, made up of the German words for "damage" and "joy," meaning taking pleasure in the misery of others, was used broadly in the media after the election. Look-ups increased 75 per cent. The word in English dates to 1895.

- Professionalism, up 12 per cent this year over last. Mr Sokolowski suspects the bump might have been due to the bad economy and more job seekers, or a knowing "glimpse into what qualities people value."


23.18 | 0 komentar | Read More
techieblogger.com Techie Blogger Techie Blogger